| Author | Message | ||
     Shabangles |
I am not sure if this is the right place, but I am thinking I have a lemon bike on my hands. I purchased a new 07 model Uly in August 09 and have had nothing but problems with it since January of this year. I have put 13,000 miles on it and right around New Years it developed an oil leak on the rear rocker box. I took it in to my local Harley dealer (Baton Rouge) and they replaced the front and rear rocker box gaskets and the cam shaft seal (unrelated small leak). They completed the work in a few days and I was able to pick the bike up on a Thursday after work. The bike seemed to run great for a while, but began to develop a bad miss at cruise RPMS by the weekend, so I took it back to the dealership. They looked at it for a few hours then said they "fixed" it, but did not do anything. I ended up bringing the bike back that same day and then they held on to it for nearly 2 weeks and replaced the rear plug wire and cam position sensor. When I was speaking with the dealership all they were doing was trying to blame the problems on me and the fact that I have a race muffler, but my bike had the race kit for nearly 1000 miles before having any issues at all. Once again, the bike seemed to run ok for a day or so (<100 miles), then the same problem developed. At this point I decided not to bring the bike back to the dealer and I tried to do research and figure out what my problem was on my own. With the help of badweb, I was able to determine that my o2 wire was shorted. After repairing the o2 wire, the bike ran great for a few more days, but then left me stranded on the side of the hwy. At this time, I discovered that Harley had left the wiring harness laying on the front cylinder head and several wires had melted and were grounding out and shorting to each other. I was able to halfway tape this up and get the bike to another dealership (Hammond, la) the next day. I explained my problem with the bike to the dealership and left it with them for about two and a half weeks. When I picked the bike up it seemed to run fine for a few days then it started to miss and cut out just like before. At the time, I was up in north Louisiana visiting family, so I had to borrow a truck to bring the bike back in to Harley that next Monday afternoon. I had not even had the bike for a week when this happened. They then kept the bike for an additional few days and I was able to pick it up this past Friday night. Once again, the bike ran great on the way home (~70 miles), but when I went to go for a ride Saturday morning it started missing and running poorly again. I brought it strait back to the dealership and was barely able to make it there. They say they have not idea what the problem is, but it seems to me that at a minimum the entire harness and most of the engine sensors need to be changed due to the short. Sorry for the long story, but this is the 5th time I have had the bike in a dealership for the same issue and I am getting tired of dealing with it. The most frustrating thing about the whole situation is that the bike ran great until Baton Rouge Harley repaired the rocker box gaskets. I am to the point now where I am researching Lemon Laws and will be contacting an Attorney this week. Do y'all think I have a case? If so, what would my best next move be? Thank You | ||
| Court |
You most certainly have a good an valid case. I used to get involved in things like this but have recently retired. I'd get in touch with Buell Customer Service. Before you do . . . if you can find it . . . it'd be good to read a deal I wrote several years ago about dealing with them. It's buried here in the archives. I got a 2008 Ulysses, that my wife and Mr. Buell conspired on, as a birthday gift and the darn thing is as pleasing a motorcycle as I have ever ridden. It handles well, has plenty of power, stops with the best of them, can hold enough junque for me to set off from coast to coast and is comfortable on 16 hour days. Your's needs to be brought to a similarly pleasing state and the folks at Buell Customer Service can fix you right up. | ||
| Doerman |
It seems to me, that the real problem (not the ones inflicted by your dealer by shoddy work) may be related to an improper TSP re-set. The symptoms of an off-kilter TSP setting is surging and missing at cruise speed and irregular idle. A common mistake is that the idle has not been fully backed out when performing the TPS re-set. |
